"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Castro regime's massive fail: It can't even pretend to have free speech

Test results are coming in for #YoTambienExijo performance art piece and Castro regime's performance is a massive fail for free speech in Cuba.

With Sunday's post announcing that Tania Bruguera, a daughter of the nomenklatura, who is also an internationally recognized performance artist, was going to conduct an artistic happening in the Plaza of the Revolution. Interviewed by Reuters Ms. Bruguera was crystal clear about how she views herself: "I'm not doing this as a dissident, I'm doing it as a normal person," ... "I'm not a counter-revolutionary, like they say. I'm from a
revolutionary family. ... I'm going to continue the project."

Age old strategy: divide and conquer
Nevertheless, voices emerged through social media questioning her motives. State security knows how to play the game of manipulation sowing distrust and
division within movements but a nonviolent strategic vision can prevent and minimize it by focusing on what is important.Castro regime demonstrates its profound weakness
For example, December 30th demonstrated that the Castro regime did not want to permit the simulacrum of an exercise in free speech in an open space. The dictatorship could have set up a militarized cordon busing in state security agents and militias to take over the square while at the same time rounding up or surrounding the home of dissidents so that they could not attend the event. This would have left the artist to conduct her free speech happening with only regime agents. The New York Times and Associated Press would report on the "spontaneous support" for the Castro regime.

This would have been a less damaging international public relations option but the dictatorship did not exercise it and this leads to the question: Why not? The answer is that it did not because it apparently does not trust elements within its own state security and militia. If just one state security agent or militia member takes to the stage and breaks ranks that could begin a chain reaction that could spell the end of the regime. In Eastern Europe it was shown that if an autonomous space is carved out in the public sphere, freed from totalitarian control, it could subvert the entire system.

Graphic by Rolando Pulido

Instead they grabbed up Tania Bruguera the day before the event (December 29th) holding her incommunicado and released her on December 31st only to grab her up again a short time later when she tried to organize the performance art piece at another location. Official Cuban television on Cuba Hoy showed a normal and tranquil plaza without mentioning the detentions of the artist or others that wanted to hold the event there. The latest news is that she was detained a third time while trying to ascertain the plight of others detained because of the event she had planned.

Fortunately, principled and strategic nonviolence offer insights on how to operate in such a difficult and complicated environment. Here are four principles that I hold:

I. What is not negotiable
There are things that within a nonviolent context can never be surrendered or denied others such as dignity and things that must never accepted such as humiliation or attempting to humiliate others. Respecting all parties and how they wish to identify or not identify themselves while accurately describing their actions is legitimate.

II.Not forgetting those unfairly imprisoned or extrajudicially executed
Another general principle should be that when one has been detained or disappeared that the rights of that person be respected and that they be immediately freed. Over the past week it is known that the following Cuban artists, journalists and activists were detained by State Security:

IV. 'As the means so the end'At the same time it is important to try and discern what are the most effective strategies to achieve real and lasting change in Cuba versus those strategies that may unknowingly facilitate a fraudulent change that maintains the old regime in power. In the New Testament their is a passage that states: by their fruits you shall know them. The purpose of this approach is to seek out through a public and transparent conversation the best strategy to achieve change in an open and democratic manner. This is an anti-Machiavellian approach that Mohandas Gandhi described as follows: "They say, 'means are, after all, means'. I would say, 'means are, after all, everything'. As the means so the end..."A tale of two cities
In Miami at the Freedom Tower there was a successful gathering in solidarity with Tania Bruguera and the #YoTambienExigo that reproduced what had been attempted in Havana with Cubans speaking for one minute about their desires for a free Cuba. It provided a marked contrast with the repression in Havana. If Cuba is to have a democratic future and not just another round of authoritarian or continuing totalitarian dictatorship then the freedom of speech of all political parties must be respected even those one violently disagrees with. The rules set out by Ms. Bruguera and followed to the letter in Miami are found in the graphic below in Spanish states: "#ITooDemand - a microphone open to all - One Minute of Time - Don't Interrupt - Speak in a personal capacity - No Bad Words or Violence 12.30.2014 3:00PM We'll See Each Other in The Plaza"